Is the killer still out there? Were there many more undiscovered bodies tossed in a ditch somewhere in the desert? Or was the death of an individual purely accidental?
Equally compelling are the investigators who explore every possible theory to track down a criminal.
These cases continue to prompt intrigue because we all have an innate desire to have closure.
"What's the creepiest unsolved mystery you know?"
Multiple bodies were found and not a single killer was identified.
Family Murder
"Dardeen Family Murders. Husband, pregnant wife and young son. Wife and son bludgeoned in their bed the mother gave birth where the perpetrator(s) then bludgeoned the newborn. They found the husband shot execution style outside. No fingerprints or DNA found at the scene it was completely clean."
Beach Graveyard
"In the area I grew up, there was someone killing sand dunes and burying them in the sand dunes by the beach. They would sporadically show up. To my knowledge, the person was never found."
"Cleveland Torso Murderer"
"Back in the 1930s, there was a serial killer called the Cleveland Torso Murderer who would cut off people's limbs, heads, and genitals, then leave the torsos behind for the police to find them. Not only did they never figure out who the killer was, but they also never figured out who most of the victims were."
Bodies On The Road
"The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders in 1972-73. I grew up in the area but didn't hear anything about it until a couple years ago. Seven girls and women were murdered and dumped along rural roads in Sonoma County. The case is often overshadowed by the Golden State Killer and Zodiac Killer. Who murdered these girls in sleepy Sonoma County remains a mystery to this day."
The following Redditors discussed cases involving missing people and unknown causes of death.
Missing Bride
"Mary Shotwell Little has always kept me up at night."
"Went missing after shopping at Lenox Mall in Atlanta in 1965. She was a newlywed so she was called the Missing Bride. She was reported missing by coworkers the next morning but her car was no longer in the Lenox parking lot. Her husband was out of town and when he returned and went to Lenox to look for her, her car was now there. The car had her groceries, blood spots, and a folded pair of women's underwear on the console. Lots of weird details in this case like the car being returned in daylight, her credit card being used and her being spotted in NC under duress and with two men. Her body has never been found and the case is still unsolved."
The Dad That Stayed Home
"I forgot the names, but a family was going on a vacation to a sports game, but the dad stayed home because he wanted to record it, and his TV didn't have an auto-record function, meaning he had to be there to hit record."
"The family gets home and the dad is missing. The game is recorded on the TV, meaning he had to have been there when it aired. The fridge had two turkey sandwiches freshly made."
"Someone driving down the highway near their house spotted a body on the side of the road. They turned around to find it, but it was gone."
Last Seen Arguing
"Local bar, missing man from a few years ago. Nowhere to be found. He was drunk and had gotten into an argument at the bar. Walked to an Arby's at some point. His glasses were found on the ground, but no trace of him otherwise."
These bodies were found in small spaces.
The Missing Kid
"Probably that one kid that went out and disappeared but was found mangled up in a chimney a decade later by his parents."
Stuck
"Last year i worked for DEMA (Danish Emergency Management Agency), we were called out to a case of a man losing contact to his partner who was inside a chimney at a Danish art project. He was supposed to uninstall some lights, but when his partner radioed him, there was radio silence. His partner was controlling the mobile crane used to lower him inside, which was the only way up there. When we arrived the man had been inside the chimney/cylinder for about 2-3 hours. There was drones installed with heat reading cameras in the air trying to see if he was alive, and when we got the picture his body was still warm. Since we had no way of getting up there we had called for another mobile crane with which we could get to the top. My partner and our sergeant went up, and when they pulled out the man, he was already dead. We couldn't figure out how it happened, but when we got the report back it said he died from his injuries. But there was no major bruising on his body!"
"I still don't know how he died till this day."
There were no deaths in the following cases but still caused intense fear.
Repeat Break-In
"About 1.5 years ago I was broken into. They stole essentially all my life savings which was in precious medals, along with a bunch of other misc personal belongings. The police never found them. 3 days later, I see my door is broken in again and thieves came back and put a couple things back, including a gold ounce coin with a note attached that my dad had written to me when I was an infant, telling me he loved me. Less creepy just strange; criminals with a conscience."
Almost Abducted
"Whenever I was a small kid I was almost kidnapped when my mom had a seizure at the grocery store some man had grabbed me saying that he was my uncle but luckily a family friend happened to be there too and the dude ran off before police got there I was only around 5-7 at the time so I came very close to being kidnapped I have very little memory of that moment tho I only remember riding in the ambulance."
Mystery Scar
"How did I get this scar and dent in my skull. It must have been a major event with lots of bleeding, but my parents know nothing of it."
It's one thing to be haunted by the unsettling cases presented on television, but it's another to learn of one through a friend or have firsthand knowledge.
And in the digital age, where our every move is being monitored through our digital devices or surveillance cameras capturing our movements, you would think more cases of foul play would quickly reveal the murderous culprit.
But with lawbreakers always managing to stay a step ahead and adapting to technology, it's not that easy to close a case.
As with many complicated cases spanning years, we still have to trust and rely on the fact that time will eventually bring malefactors to justice.
There is a sense of security in knowing that someone has your back.
But on the same token, as is typically depicted in movies, small towns have their fair share of nefarious activity that those in the know are sweeping under the rug to maintain their town's good name.
Curious to hear about bizarre cases that don't always make mainstream news headlines, Redditor descended_from_apes asked:
"Small Town Redditors, what's the weirdest unsolved crime in your town, old or new?"
Not all mysteries involve unsolved murders but are just as baffling
A Crime In The Turd-Degree
"Nowhere near the scale of disappearing children or Nazi collaborators, but my hometown's biggest mystery is who keeps sh**ting in the holes at the golf course."
"Person has been doing it for more than 20 years. Every 2-3 months, there's a hole that's been pooped in."
Outstanding Debts
"I found out my grandma played cards with the mob in a liquor store basement. I was reading a news article on a cold case from the former owner disappearing for an English assignment and my grandma kinda just frowned, told me she used to play cards with him and never payed his debts."
House On Fire
"Not exactly 'small town', but small compared to the region. There was a house that burned down 3 times in the span of a decade. I remember hearing lots of rumors about divorces and revenge, gang activity, being cursed. Not sure if it was ever solved."
When Children Played No More
"In 2003 in my hometown, someone decided to burn down a playground. This was in a very small rural town. The nearest playground aside from that one was 15 miles away. This playground was decent sized too, and I believe it was made possible by a donation from someone in town. It was mostly wood with rubberized mesh, steel bars, and large plastic slides."
"Nobody ever figured out who did it."
Unsolved missing persons cases like the ones mentioned below must be pure torture for family members.
Death Chair
"Happened this year."
"A man rented a room at a guest house. When he left the host went to go clean/ prepare the room for the next occupant."
"The room was covered in blood. In the shower there was a chair with a pool of blood-it is assumed the person died in the chair."
"So the baffling part is that there is a camera trained in the room's door. The man entered and left alone without a speck of blood on him."
"The authorities assumed the blood belonged to a woman whose chopped-up body was found in a nearby damm. Blood tests came back and it doesn't."
Missing Classmate
"1973: My 4th grade buddy, Guy Heckle, disappeared during a boy scout camping trip. They found his coat, that was all. Not another clue after all these years."
The Bar Patron
"Man got kicked out of a bar 3 years ago this December and went missing. Nobody has come forward with tips at all. He went missing from a fairly busy part of town too."
People Break Down Their Greatest Accomplishment On The Internet | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Child Abduction
"My cousin, TJ Davison was abducted from a car in 1985 and has still yet to be found. He was 4 years old at the time. (Decatur, IL)"
And sometimes, when the bodies turn up, their identities can remain forever a mystery.
In Deep Trouble
"Where I grew up they found a dude who was buried under the cement in a building, no history or information about him. It's clear that he got into some deep trouble with someone."
– KGhaleon
Remains In A Lake
"About 15 years ago. A town near where I grew up drained a man made lake that was used for recreational swimming. This particular year they decided to drain the whole thing to do a clean up. They discovered an intact skeleton that had been sitting at the bottom of the lake for something like 50 years based on the class ring that was still on the skeleton. From my understanding this person had never been reported missing or anything."
Double Mystery
"Two bodies were found on my island in SE Asia in the last 24 hours. One was found in the jungle after being there for a year in an apparent motorbike accident the other washed up on the beach."
– BKKJB57
What's In The Barrel
"There was an old story that during prohibition a big barrel showed up at the post office, addressed to someone no one knew. It was obviously filled with alcohol."
"When the time to pick up expired and it was still there, it was tapped to find whisky inside. It was enjoyed by many, but when it was gone, it was still quite heavy."
"So they opened it up to discover a dead body."
– Dudeinairport ·
Some of the saddest cases involve the deaths of a newborn.
Murderous Mother
"Back in 1903 a local woman poisoned many members of her family, including a baby over a few months. She served time and died but never really admit to a motive. One theory is that she really liked attending irish funerals."
The Infant
"About 30yrs ago a refuse worker found the badly burned body of an 18 month old boy amongst the bags and recycling. Forensics deduced that due to the condition of his liver he'd died less than a week before his body was found."
"Hospital and medical records were used to establish that nobody in the county was missing a child."
"He doesn't have a name on his gravestone."
"Edit: it was in Cumbria, England."
"The police likely didn't retain a DNA sample, or we might have heard something about familial DNA by now.The local police aren't very good - look up the case of Poppi Worthington as an example."
"Most local people assume he died of SIDS, then his parents panicked and tried to conceal his body. Whoever did it must have had an element of local knowledge in order to know where to put the corpse."
A Proper Burial
"There is a street in my city called Park Ave. It's a very small city, mostly blue collar."
"In 2005, a newborn baby boy was found dead near a factory on Park Ave. Doctors could tell he was born alive and likely lived for a few hours before he died. I don't know if he was abandoned (left to die) or killed in some way; that info was never released. Police made a statement saying please come forward, we want to help you bury this child properly."
"The mother sent an anonymous letter to the police station two weeks later, and said she would come to the station soon. The letter didn't explain the circumstances, but it did say she was afraid."
"She never came forward. The baby was named 'Baby Parker' and money was raised to give him a proper burial. People still leave gifts at his grave."
Thanks to horror movies, small towns get a bad rep.
Under the veneer of warm hospitality and kindness lies an unsettling sense of discomfort.
Are the denizens covering up a murder committed by one of their own? Or was there a grifter who dumped a body in their unassuming town and fled the scene?
In the game of life, no one gets out alive. But hopefully, your life's journey won't end in a small town.
Closed cases may not be as fascinating, but they should still provide a sense of relief.
Wanting to give these cases the spotlight, Redditor PinV928 asked:
"What are some SOLVED mysteries?"
There was closure for these cases involving missing persons and murder.
The McStay Family
"The McStay family disappearance and murders. In February of 2010, the McStay's, a family of 4 (Mom Summer, Dad Joseph, and sons Gianni and Joseph jr) seemingly vanished from their home- abruptly. A carton of eggs was left open on the counter and the family dogs were still outside in the backyard. The scene was eerie, and complicated because the home the McStays lived in was in the process of being renovated- so a 'neat and orderly' home wasn't the norm at this stage. It appeared there was missing furniture and the usual mess that comes with construction (some freshly painted or redone surfaces mixed with older versions). From the outside- it appeared the family just took off. Neighbor had surveillance that captured what appeared to be the bottom of the family SUV leaving the driveway."
"Since they were living in California, the border to Mexico wasn't far and authorities found footage of what appeared to be the McStay's walking into Mexico with their two little boys in tow. The family SUV was found abandoned in a mall parking lot near the Mexico border. 3 years passed before the bodies of the McStay's were found buried in shallow graves in the California desert. The bodies appeared to be in advanced decomposition and there were signs of blunt force trauma. A sledgehammer was also found buried with one of the bodies. Chase Merritt, a business partner to Joseph McStay, was arrested and charged with their murders on 11/5/2014. His trial was delayed for years until 2019. He was sentenced to death. Motive: Chase had a gambling addiction and had been and continued embezzling money from the business. His DNA was found in the McStay's abandoned vehicle. He bludgeoned this beautiful family to death for money."
"ETA link with more info - https://people.com/crime/mcstay-family-murders-killer-sentenced-death/"
Screenwriter's Alleged Suicide
"The Case of Adrienne Shelly - screenwriter for Waitress. Husband came home to find her hanging in the shower - ruled suicide."
"He insists she was happy and would never kill herself promoting another view of crime scene where they found a shoe print that matched a construction worker in the building."
"Sure enough the construction worker went to rob her and thought he killed her so staged a suicide when the hanging ended up being the actual thing that killed her."
Abducted Japanese Girls
"In the 1970s, a number of Japanese citizens disappeared from coastal areas in Japan. After many years it was found out that North Korea had abducted them."
"North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens"
"Most of the missing were in their 20s; the youngest, Megumi Yokota, was 13 when she disappeared in November 1977, from the Japanese west coast city of Niigata."
A Baby's Death
"The death of Azaria Chamberlain - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Azaria_Chamberlain"
"She was a two-month old girl who disappeared while camping with her parents near Uluru. Prosecutors successfully tried her mother for murder and father as an accessory. During the entire ordeal it was insisted by her mother that Azaria was taken by dingoes, native wild dogs in Australia. This was disregarded, as before this there were no records of dingoes showing any hostility towards humans or causing any attacks or fatalities nearby."
"Several years later, an unrelated search not far from the campground found a child's coat, of the exact brand and description Azaria's mother gave to the police, in an area littered with Dingo dens. The parents conviction was overturned and the case was established that in reality, she had been taken from her parents tent during the night, killed and eaten by dingos."
The Attack On Dan Rather
"Dan Rather was attacked and beaten on a New York street by two men who kept demanding, 'What's the frequency, Kenneth?' He was rescued by a doorman, and the two guys got away. For years, no one knew who they were."
"Then a man invaded NBC Studios and killed a stage hand. When captured, he explained that the networks were beaming radio messages into his head. He wanted to know the frequency they were using so he could jam the signals. Dan Rather was shown a mugshot and positively identified his attacker."
"Here's a New York Times article on it."
The water kept these mysteries unsolved for years.
Antoine deSaint-Exupery
"The disappearance of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of The Little Prince, who was also a French reconnaissance pilot during World War II."
"In 1944, he took off on a reconnaissance mission from Corsica and never made it back, and there was never any evidence of what might have happened to him and his plane."
"Finally, in 1998, a French fisherman pulled up his net and found wrapped in it a silver bracelet engraved with Saint-Exupery's name, and in 2004, a diver searched in the area and found the remains of his plane, which had apparently been shot down by a German fighter after all."
People Share The 'Dirty Secrets' That Their Bosses Don't Want Customers To Know
More Than A Century Later
"The Erebus and the Terror were found a few years ago. The two ships were part of an artic expedition and dissapeared 150 years ago."
"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_lost_expedition"
Icy Grave
"1947 an British South American Airways aircraft named Star Dust disappeared, it's last message was simply 'STENDEC.' After an exhausting search, no trace of the aircraft was found. For years conspiracy theories and talk of Alien abduction circulated."
"Till 1998, when mountain climbers on a remote mountain found an engine, pieces of metal, and clothing at the bottom of a glacier on the side of Mount Tupungato. Turns out the aircraft got caught flying the wrong way in the jet stream while it was flying at night and using a system of timing when to start their decent. Being in the jet stream reduced their airspeed in relation to the earth and they smacked themselves straight into the side of a mountain, after which an avalanche covered the wreckage. The wreckage took decades to flow down the side of the mount with the glaciers. The glacier preserved the wreck so well that 50 years later the recovery team found identifiable remains, personal items, and could read serial numbers on the engines. Amazing one of the landing gear tires was still inflated, and that teams continued to visit the site for periodically as more of the aircraft, cargo, and remains of passengers are still emerging from the ice."
The Windsor Hum
"Residents of Windsor (Canada) have been saying they could hear a hum coming from across the river in Detroit for the better part of a few decades. Well turns out that when a steel producer turned their furnaces off recently (when they were closing up shop) the Hum stopped. People had no idea what the noise could be until the factory closed."
"Edit: also a little fun fact; Zug Island (where the factory was located) was mentioned in Robocop and was also the destination of the SS Edmond Fitzgerald before it sank."
Where The River Runs
"Devil's Kettle Falls: A stream separates into two sections, one continues normally the other spirals deep into a hole. All sorts of things were thrown down the hole in an effort to discover where the water went. Ping pong balls, various dyes, it was even rumored that someone stuck an old car down there. Eventually someone came up with a clever idea, they measured the total water flow above and below the falls and discovered they were similar enough to deduce the two streams join back up relatively quickly."
We'll Never Let Go, Jack
"Where is the Titanic? (Most people don't realize that half of the people in the world grew up when the ship's location was still a complete mystery. Now, it's old news."
– SyzoBAZ
There were logical explanations for these seemingly otherworldly phenomena.
What The "Bloop?"
"The Bloop"
"In 1997 a really weird and loud noise was detected underwater and everyone was all 'WTF was that?.' In 2012 it was determined it was an iceberg breaking and/or rubbing against the seabed."
Misinterpreted Legend
"El Dorado or the lost city of gold turned out to be a mistranslation. It was just the name of some guy that got mistranslated to the name of a city."
Fake Tears
"Weeping Jesus statue in India mystery. Apparently a Jesus statue started crying and all Christians along with Hindus started to drink it. It turned out to be sewage. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeping_crucifix_in_Mumbai"
The Prophet Hen Of Leeds
"A hen was laying eggs with messages like "Christ is Coming" and people thought the world was ending. Turned out the farmer was actually writing on the eggs herself, and then reinserted it back into the chicken. edited for gender of the farmer."
For Christ's Sake
"The tomb of Jesus' previously unknown brother turned out to be a hoax to try to sell the tomb of a nobody for a lot of money."
The North Atlantic Vortex
"Bermuda Triangle / devils sea... a triangle shaped section of ocean where airplanes and boats were known to disappear."
"Apparently most stories were embellished, and there is so much traffic that goes through the area it's actually a very small amount of vessels that go missing (percentage wise)."
The "Terrible Hand"
"What Deinocheirus looked like."
"When I was a kid in the 80s, all that was known were the bones of the arms with enormous claws. Hence its name, 'terrible hand.' They were mostly shown grasping a small car because they were so freaking huge. The rest of the animal was a complete mystery. Was it like a giant Allosaurus, one that'd make the T-Rex look like a puppy in comparison? A few years later it seemed more likely to be ostrich-like and an omnivore. Either way, given how rare it is for fossils to form at all, I was convinced I'd die never knowing what this dinosaur actually looked like."
"Then surprisingly in 2014, they found more bones and it was just the weirdest thing."
The Pioneer Gravity Anomaly
"Space probe wasn't accelerating away from Earth the way we'd predicted, but it didn't get noticed until the probe got way the f'k out there."
"Next space probe gets launched, gets way out there, same thing happens. WTF? How does acceleration not work right? Does gravity just change really far away?"
"Turns out the heat from the radioactive death generator was all coming off the same side of the space probe, and the extra particle radiation gave a 'thermal recoil force' resulting in an extra acceleration of -- no kidding -- about 0.000000000874 m/s2."
"Over enough distance, it all counts."
– Laceogra
Closed cases and logical explanations are all well and good, but there is one phenomenon that continues to plague me.
Where do missing socks go? Seriously. It's a common occurrence where I'm left with a lone sock and the other is never caught in the lint trap or lost in the pile. They just vanish without a trace, I know I'm not alone in this.
Solving that mystery is not about having closure or putting my mind at ease so I can sleep at night.
I'm just tired of repeatedly buying new pairs of socks just because one sock goes rogue. Is it a New York laundry thing? Who knows?
But please enlighten me before I give up on socks and go with Crocs all the way.